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Mashups: Songwriting

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It's not about good songs or bad songs...it's about having creative options...tools to try out on one of your compositions.  "Three things that I ran into during the 5 years we were building the Songwriting Department at Berklee", Tom says.  "One was a mind set from musicians that spent years practicing their instruments from sounding horrible to good think their first song should be perfect.  Songwriting is a craft that also needs to be practiced."  Tom goes on saying, "also, we'd always say the most creative end of the pencil is the eraser and most important, equip yourself with a huge toolbox of writing variety and options".  "The moment of inspiration is the little melody or lyric phrase that pops in your head.  Have a way to quickly capture that moment, then go home, open up your toolbox and craft that idea into a working song."

This course is team taught by writing partners Tom Frazee and Nancy Roche.  Tom was Senior Curriculum Developer for the start-up and implementation of Berklee College of Music's 4 year degree in Songwriting.  Nancy was a staff singer at Columbine Records in LA which specialized in recording song demos for music people would send in.

This Mini Mash-up is a 4 / 2 hour course run in four consecutive sessions.  Typically Monday-Thursday evenings with starting at 7PM plus 8-10 hours of extra on-line study time.  All mash-up materials are included (except for your computer), it is taught for both Mac and PC and it includes a very cool 30 minute "ask-the-expert" after each session.